Pitchfork

[Posted Monday, November 3rd, 2003 04:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

White-hot Sub Pop acts The Shins and Iron & Wine are teaming up for a handful of dates next month in Australia, according to the label's official website. Both artists are well-stocked with new material for the tour, the Shins having just dropped their sophomore album Chutes Too Narrow to both critical acclaim and the highest-ever one-week sales for an album on Sub Pop with a Soundscan figure of 15,600. That's also enough to land the Albuquerque lads on Billboard's Top 100 (number 86, to be exact). Will it go all the way to #1? Will it go platinum? Will you hear "Kissing The Lipless" right next to Beyonce's "Baby Boy" on the radio? Probably not, but it did land the group an appearance on The Late, Late Show with Craig Kilborn this Friday, November 7th.

As for Iron & Wine, Sub Pop's Chris Jacobs reports that Sam Beam has completed recording on the follow-up to last year's The Creek Drank the Cradle, and is now working on mixing and mastering. The album is still untitled and un-tracklisted, but it does have a tentative release date of March 23rd on Sub Pop. Anyhow, if you happen to be in the land down under come December for a south-of-the-equator Christmas in the summertime, the two bands will play four dates together in December. Here are the dates:

12-09 Sydney, Australia - Gaelic Club
12-10 Melbourne, Australia - Corner Hotel
12-11 Adelaide, Australia - Fowlers Live
12-14 Brisbane, Australia - Zoo